Met with Songbai, the pipa player, yesterday to talk music. She spent most of the time playing the guzheng (one of her friends borrowed hers about a year ago, and mine was casually sitting there).We discussed both the music she'll be playing and chinese music, and it turns out I haven't recruited a pipa player after all.

I've recruited another insane multi-instrumentalist, and she's also interested in my eventual project which will be heavily chinese based. Either way, it means that that project will have at least eight possible different instruments (possibly rising to twelve depending on what each of us have got by then) and there are only two of us in that project yet. But yeah, she may also be a second keys player for us, as well as dizi, xiao, erhu and another guzheng player.

So, we played the Christmas Medley today during the service, and I recorded it on my ancient video camera mounted on a tripod in the balcony, 100 miles away. Audio isn't too bad because the acoustics in our sanctuary are pretty awesome, but video is pretty horrible because of the distance, plus the fact that Facebook munges your video down for bandwidth purposes.

Man, church organ is tough. I'm okay with doing two or three things with my hands, but once you get the feet involved, things get out of control very quickly. I pretty much have to put my hands on autopilot so I can concentrate on what my feet are doing. I just don't have it down, don't have the hundreds of hours of playing to where they can do their own thing. I have keys to the church, but the organ itself is locked up when the organist isn't there, so I can't sneak in there and practice, either (I tried it).

Man, church organ is tough. I'm okay with doing two or three things with my hands, but once you get the feet involved, things get out of control very quickly. I pretty much have to put my hands on autopilot so I can concentrate on what my feet are doing. I just don't have it down, don't have the hundreds of hours of playing to where they can do their own thing. I have keys to the church, but the organ itself is locked up when the organist isn't there, so I can't sneak in there and practice, either (I tried it).

Woah woah, didn't mean THAT crazy lol. I just might actually need you. The next song I'm going to work on is going to have a church organ intro. I was going to write the melody, but am not enough of a keyboardist to put interesting church style chords and stuff behind it. I might not need it, but if I do, do you have any pro-tools midi recording ability?

Ok, so I've looked up the Liang Zhu violin concerto (unfortunately could only get piano and violin version) as I want to understand how chinese music is put together, so I can write things for Songbai, our Chinese multi-instrumentalist (pipa, guzheng, dizi, xiao, erhu and also keyboards) as she's not currently comfortable with improvising.

As a result, I've found a couple of things. First, as I learned electronic keyboards and wasn't overly good, as opposed to piano, and also because I find it vastly easier to play from memory, I have found I don't understand a few of the notation devices. Most notably is the rest with a dot and crescent on top. I am probably very much mistaken as it's five years since I last closely used sheet, but dot and crescent rings a bell as being staccato. That or the other thing that comes to mind is that it's some sort of volumey thing. Now, I don't know about you, but I have never heard anyone comment on how amazingly impressive the dynamics of a rest were. I would very much appreciate correction so I can understand what the hell this notation on the rest means.

Second: finding the full orchestral score is a bitch, and if anyone knows where I can find it, I'll be greatly appreciative.

Don't you mean unspecified? It just makes the note over which the fermata is placed 'longer', but it doesn't tell you how much longer. It's a feeling-thing, just drag it out a little, but not too much.

It's a feeling thing for sure, unless you're in an ensemble with a conductor, in which case you follow the conductor. That's the only time I've seen fermatas over rests. One of more other parts are holding a note, but you're not playing, so you have a fermata over a rest while they have one over the actual notes they're holding.

The best soundtracks "interact" with what's happening on screen. I like it when specific things happen musically that underscore visual things.

Other than that, as long as the music sounds good and fits the mood of the scene, etc., I usually like it.

Well my soundtrack is to a comic book haha. I figure this way there's a visual story with which I can connect, but there's not already a sound track to throw me off.

And I do interact them, actually I go a step further. I am using the music to tell the story.

For instance. The comic I'm doing is from the X-Men. And the first song is called M-Day based on....well....M-Day. At the end of M-Day the mutant population goes from about a million to 200. So to signify that I ended the song played a big epic version of what I call the mutant theme and then end it with playing the same thing on a lone piano to signify the immense drop in population. I do that kind of stuff with all of it. Still hard since I barely know how to play keyboards and I'm doing everything on keys.

Aaaaah, thanks. That explains why I never came across it, as almost all of my lessons were on electronic keyboard rather than piano, so I was always dealing with a constant backing rhythm rather than unspecified note holdings.

Hi guys, I'm a guitarrist and lead vocals in my band is called Bulprick. We're kinda Heavy/Thrash/ Metal but we do much more than that, right now we have 2 tunes that are considered Progressive Metal. Check it out

Once I re-work the cable and hope themes, I'll put the online in a few days. Maybe some of you guys can take a listen and let me know if I'm even doing a remotely okay job?

I'll be interested in that. I like soundtracks where you can tell the composer has put effort into matching it to the story, in using specific variations of themes, or in the orchestration.

I'm just getting back into some music stuff myself for the first time since upgrading to Windows 7 (using VSTis), and for some reason my ASIO driver cuts off all other audio on my computer. The sound works perfectly in my music program, but then everything else, such as my music player, cuts off, so I can't listen to any other music, which makes it impossible to actually do anything.I'm not sure whether it's to do with the hardware or the software, but I don't know how to use any other programs to try instead.

Okay, here it is. Be kind please. But since I clearly have low self esteem I'll do the whole listing what's wrong with it so you needn't.

1. It's crappy orchestral sounds, sorry.2. It's literally my first time doing this type of music. 3. I'm not a kangaroo. 4. If some of the transitions seem odd, keep in mind it's supposed to act like a complimentary piece to a comic that I doubt any of you have read.

Those orchestral sounds weren't bad. Still a big improvement over stock MIDI.

I really liked it once it kicked in at the 2 minute mark, but I feel like it needed more low end, like the double bass or some tuba.And I liked the piano at the end, but if that's going to be the very end of the song, I feel like the tempo should be a bit more free-time and slow down a bit. Maybe just play it live without any click instead of programming it?

I'm not experienced with this kind of music at all, but those were just my thoughts upon listening to it.

Those orchestral sounds weren't bad. Still a big improvement over stock MIDI.

I really liked it once it kicked in at the 2 minute mark, but I feel like it needed more low end, like the double bass or some tuba.And I liked the piano at the end, but if that's going to be the very end of the song, I feel like the tempo should be a bit more free-time and slow down a bit. Maybe just play it live without any click instead of programming it?

I'm not experienced with this kind of music at all, but those were just my thoughts upon listening to it.

It has a good amount of low end, but you're listening to a compressed MP3 for obvious reasons.

And I totally hear you about the piano piece at the end being off from the click, maybe I'll give that a try.

And none of it is programmed. The closest I got to programming is playing arpeggios in one key and instead of learning it in another, I just shift it or something similar.

I wouldn't even know how to program an actual song. Playing is a lot easier.

And did you listen to just M Day or Birth of Hope and War on Three Fronts as well?

I only listened to M Day, but I'll listen to the rest right now. (I also forgot that I'm listening to music outside of my music player without my EQ, and my headphones have balls bass without the EQ, so that's probably why I didn't hear the low end).

I really liked War on Three Fronts. I don't have anything constructive to add there. And the only comment I have for Birth of Hope is that because of the 5/8 time sig, I had a bit of trouble grasping the rhythm of the unaccompanied intro on first listen. That might not be an issue for people listening to it as a "score", although listening to it isolated, I thought I'd mention it.

I like all of it. It sounds like soundtrack music. Music which is good enough to be listened to as one might listen to an orchestral work, but which is really meant to underscore something else, something visual. I found that it often evoked visual imagery, just based on the title and the music itself.

You have a great feel for orchestration. The way the strings, winds, brass, and percussion complement each other and work together is great, and no less than what I would expect from a more experience soundtrack writer.

That piano bit at the end of "M Day" was fine. It reprised the theme in a completely different way. There was definitely a contrast to it, a "this is the end" or "this is where we are afterward" feeling to it.

The 5/8 starting off "Messiah Complex" was neat. Different. I like how the theme was played without rhythm and the meter wasn't obvious right away, kinda the same thing that Blob had trouble with, I guess. Then it changed, which was nice, rather than fall into the cliché of adding a countermelody or simply adding rhythm while repeating the theme.

"War on Three Fronts" was pretty kickass. Sounded like a great war soundtrack. I love when the "choir" comes in. That dramatic effect. Okay, it's probably overused in general, but it's practically expected in soundtrack music of this type, and there isn't too much of it, which is good.

Bravo! I could never write stuff like this. Well maybe, but I'd never have the time to devote to it.

So, do we have any singers here on DTF who have the means to record themselves? I'm messing around with putting a sort of cover song together for a project I'm thinking about, and I can't do the vocals myself, and it would require a pretty decent vocal range (up to a C#5 ideally, although a B4 would suffice).Just thought I'd ask around and see if we've got anyone who might be able to help out.

I like all of it. It sounds like soundtrack music. Music which is good enough to be listened to as one might listen to an orchestral work, but which is really meant to underscore something else, something visual. I found that it often evoked visual imagery, just based on the title and the music itself.

You have a great feel for orchestration. The way the strings, winds, brass, and percussion complement each other and work together is great, and no less than what I would expect from a more experience soundtrack writer.

That piano bit at the end of "M Day" was fine. It reprised the theme in a completely different way. There was definitely a contrast to it, a "this is the end" or "this is where we are afterward" feeling to it.

The 5/8 starting off "Messiah Complex" was neat. Different. I like how the theme was played without rhythm and the meter wasn't obvious right away, kinda the same thing that Blob had trouble with, I guess. Then it changed, which was nice, rather than fall into the cliché of adding a countermelody or simply adding rhythm while repeating the theme.

"War on Three Fronts" was pretty kickass. Sounded like a great war soundtrack. I love when the "choir" comes in. That dramatic effect. Okay, it's probably overused in general, but it's practically expected in soundtrack music of this type, and there isn't too much of it, which is good.

Bravo! I could never write stuff like this. Well maybe, but I'd never have the time to devote to it.